Raiders At Fault For Russell’s Failed Career

The Yahoo! Sports report that John Lucas has severed ties with JaMarcus Russell and asked him to leave Houston makes it clear that the career of the former No. 1 one pick is in major jeopardy.

I find it hard to wrap my mind around the fall that Russell has had since leaving LSU and entering the NFL Draft. There’s a lot of revisionist history on him, but this was a player who was the essence of a big-time quarterback in college. Russell had a tremendous arm, great body build and could scramble around a bit. As such an impressive physical specimen, very few defenders could match up with him.

I’ll always feel that him being picked by the Raiders was a bad fit. If you take someone like JaMarcus Russell, I think he could thrive playing under Bill Belichick or Andy Reid. In Oakland, the whole situation was a circus. Lane Kiffin was the head coach, then he wasn’t, and then Russell was handed a starting job he never deserved.

You have to wonder how this story would have turned out had Russell gone to a more stable organization. Now he’s reportedly way overweight, and has a lack of passion and guidance. A very sad story, indeed.